For now I’m happy to be alive! At 358 km the front mudguard was torn off, maybe caused by a big stone. It got in the wheel and tore off the break cable too.
It was an abrupt stop, I flew over the bike and crashed the front of the helmet. I barely saved my teeth, nose and eyes. But didn’t break my neck.

I fixed the bike and struggled on. The last part of the stage was like hell – sand with vegetation, and rain and hail. But I made it to the finish, after 12 hrs as 121st.

Annie Seel is used to hard luck. For example, the Swedish biker, amongst other motorcycling adventures, finished the Dakar in 2002 with a broken hand after injuring herself on the fourth day of the race. She will not be ready to forget the stage between Neuquen and San Rafael, which started to become a nightmare after 350 km of the special stage: “I had a nasty fall, which made my day absolutely infernal. My helmet was damaged, I had a nose bleed, a bust lip, and especially the bike was in a really bad state. The brake cable was stuck in the front wheel and the mud guard was shattered so I took it off. What’s more, my handlebars were all bent. When I arrived at the dunes section, I couldn’t handle the bike properly, because I’m too small, so I took off the seat and left it there. I think I must have fallen at least a hundred times!” It was just at the same time as it started to rain and hail on the special stage route. This little lady, who is only five foot two, could hardly imagine that the situation could get any worse: “When I saw the weather, I told myself to just take everything as it comes, thinking back to the Dakar in 2002 when I was wondering how I managed to finish with a broken hand. Thinking ‘you managed to do it then, so you can do it today’ helped me through. What surprised me the most is that for the first time on the Dakar, I brought a spare helmet with me!”